DONMARQUEZ
Chemical
- Jul 7, 2006
- 4
Hi I hope everyone is having a nice weekend and wanted to say thanks for taking the time in reading my first post to the forums. Hopefully it isn’t going to become too long winded with human emotions and that I get my current situation and questions across. I graduated from a South Florida university in August of 2003 with a B.S. in chemical engineering and a minor in biomedical engineering with an overall G.P.A. of about a 3.4. I consider myself a first generation here in the United States because I came here with my mom when I was about two years old to Miami and we do not have any previous relatives that have lived in the states. The university I was attending was in the process of becoming ABET accredited and at the time I had the opportunity of attending two career fairs at the university campus and talked to several chemical engineers that graduated from the same school and were currently employed in large and/or well known companies such as Johnson & Johnson and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to name just a few, and they were earning within the salary range that for example Salary.com posts, although that might not be a good example.
Things did look bright until December of 2002 when we all had a sudden meeting that the chemical engineering program was going to eventually be closed and obviously not going to continue with the accreditation process. The last graduating class was in August of 2003 and I was one of the few who graduated that month. A few months ago when I talked to the only remaining professor at the university who taught chemical engineering courses said that the program was not cancelled but placed in hiatus, and that the only reason it has not been cancelled yet was because of all the paperwork and communication needed to go between the university and Tallahassee. As far as the “traditional” networking mediums with professors, students, graduate students, advisors and events like the career fair are no longer an option for me. The main reason being, like I said the only person from the program is a professor who even though he graduated from possibly the number one ranked or if not two ranked chemical engineering program/university he had no serious connections to the industry since he went straight from the classroom as a student to academia. The other professors left to pursue their goals whether in academia or in the field. Of the twelve or so students that we had, I say about ten were international students and the others moved to other states. Everyone migrated out back to their countries or to other states or what not within a year of this happening.
You name it I have tried it. Yellow pages, white pages, over three dozen online websites, government, state jobs, city jobs, local jobs, national jobs, head hunters, public career fairs held annually or bi-annually depending on the county. I’ve tried networking by getting business cards from these folks, joining a local Sunday church meeting group, and doing a little bit of work from charity organizations, among other things as well. I must have sent out over a thousand resumes that I have lost count. I’ve talked to professors and deans from four different universities and got the same response from them which was the following “if you do decide to go for a master’s do it because you love your field not because you think it will be a guarantee for a job”. I guess they could have fed me the line that everything was going to be peachy about getting a graduate degree since universities are in part a business as well. They told me that I had a good chance to get into a master’s program but that I would have to pay a good part of the expenses, which I cannot afford right now, and that my G.P.A. would probably have to be a 3.5 or higher if I decided to go as a candidate for the PhD which I do not have. Three of the four universities did tell me that with my financial situation the “ideal circumstance” would be to get my masters if I were employed by a company that has a program that pays part of the degree.
After trying all of these things basically all I have to show for in the three years that I have graduated are two very low paying technical jobs, not engineering related although science related like high school chemistry knowledge for example. The first job I had lasted for a few months until I got laid off. Half of the company which was the manufacturing side was sent to China to save costs, about a year later since this did not remedy the problem, Honeywell ended up buying the company. The second job I had was basically about a six month contract doing basically chemistry laboratory work. The very last option I took that was radically different of what I have already done in trying to get a job was going to the American Chemical Society meeting in Washington D.C. I talked to several people on what else I could do and if they could critique my resume. It has already been reviewed about eight times from four different people prior to my trip to D.C. but I wanted another perspective I guess. The summary comes down to that most likely I would have to relocate as the only viable option, but that my resume seemed that it basically had the “meat and potatoes.” I guess the small good news is that in all of this I have a little bit of job experience as well as interviewing skills and that I nailed both interviews that landed me the two jobs that I previously held, however both jobs were located in South Florida.
I guess I am very frustrated because I only know what a chemical engineer does not by my experience but what magazines and books say they do. I have never pigeon-holed myself into just doing one aspect such as research as an example. I am open to manufacturing, energy, food; paper, healthcare, biotechnology, government, oil industry etc. just to name a few. And I have sent resume to these fields among others as well. I am not looking for the golden 6 figure salary job, but I am embarrassed about being on the other side of the spectrum. I am a 29 year old single guy still living with his mom where she has two jobs because I cannot pay my own bills. I’ve even tried jobs such as Home Depot or Best Buy and not even get called for that. Hell even my best friend foots the bill when we go out to eat, and he works as a security guard. One of my friends who works at one of these similar places as an assistant manager say that for the most part they will not hire someone like me because they know that I will be looking for a job elsewhere. It is more viable to hire someone still in high school or in college that can put in several years than someone like me. Do I have leprosy? I have even tried looking into the pharmacy program, too expensive and the nursing program which seems more viable as options. In any case these are my following questions.
1. Is the only option basically moving, or do you think I have other options as far as being able to ever practice as an engineer?
My two cents on why I think I have never been called outside of Florida is because I come from an unaccredited school or possibly because since most chemical engineering jobs are located in the Northeast, Midwest and Texas for example why would a company look for someone all the way over here when they have candidates from much better schools a few miles away or at worst case scenario a state or two away. Or maybe it is something else or a combination of?
2. Is it too late to enter the field as an engineer with almost three years being out of
touch with my field?
My two cents on this is that since every year you have new graduates, basically you are competing with them, they are fresh out of school.
3. Do you know someone with a similar experience and what they did to get out of
it? Meaning how did they eventually get the engineering job?
I guess what I mean above is that do you have a similar personal experience or a friend or relative who has had trouble getting a job in the engineering field because of: The person came from an unaccredited school, location, financial troubles, not having an extended network of family or professionals because you came from poverty or consider yourself a first generation in the states. I guess to coin the phrase it is not always what you know but who you know. Or if you know someone in this situation did they do a complete overhaul in their lives and did a 180 turn by choosing a completely unrelated field?
Well I want to thank you for the time in taking to read what probably turned into a novel. Sometimes I wonder if I should have become a lawyer, an accountant, a pill dispenser also known as a pharmacist, a doctor who is just in it for the money, or a strip club owner down here in Miami. I would probably be living the “Miami lifestyle” and would be taking care of my mom instead of the other way around, although I would have to sell my soul and do something I would have not enjoyed except for maybe one of the choices.
Regards,
Juan
Things did look bright until December of 2002 when we all had a sudden meeting that the chemical engineering program was going to eventually be closed and obviously not going to continue with the accreditation process. The last graduating class was in August of 2003 and I was one of the few who graduated that month. A few months ago when I talked to the only remaining professor at the university who taught chemical engineering courses said that the program was not cancelled but placed in hiatus, and that the only reason it has not been cancelled yet was because of all the paperwork and communication needed to go between the university and Tallahassee. As far as the “traditional” networking mediums with professors, students, graduate students, advisors and events like the career fair are no longer an option for me. The main reason being, like I said the only person from the program is a professor who even though he graduated from possibly the number one ranked or if not two ranked chemical engineering program/university he had no serious connections to the industry since he went straight from the classroom as a student to academia. The other professors left to pursue their goals whether in academia or in the field. Of the twelve or so students that we had, I say about ten were international students and the others moved to other states. Everyone migrated out back to their countries or to other states or what not within a year of this happening.
You name it I have tried it. Yellow pages, white pages, over three dozen online websites, government, state jobs, city jobs, local jobs, national jobs, head hunters, public career fairs held annually or bi-annually depending on the county. I’ve tried networking by getting business cards from these folks, joining a local Sunday church meeting group, and doing a little bit of work from charity organizations, among other things as well. I must have sent out over a thousand resumes that I have lost count. I’ve talked to professors and deans from four different universities and got the same response from them which was the following “if you do decide to go for a master’s do it because you love your field not because you think it will be a guarantee for a job”. I guess they could have fed me the line that everything was going to be peachy about getting a graduate degree since universities are in part a business as well. They told me that I had a good chance to get into a master’s program but that I would have to pay a good part of the expenses, which I cannot afford right now, and that my G.P.A. would probably have to be a 3.5 or higher if I decided to go as a candidate for the PhD which I do not have. Three of the four universities did tell me that with my financial situation the “ideal circumstance” would be to get my masters if I were employed by a company that has a program that pays part of the degree.
After trying all of these things basically all I have to show for in the three years that I have graduated are two very low paying technical jobs, not engineering related although science related like high school chemistry knowledge for example. The first job I had lasted for a few months until I got laid off. Half of the company which was the manufacturing side was sent to China to save costs, about a year later since this did not remedy the problem, Honeywell ended up buying the company. The second job I had was basically about a six month contract doing basically chemistry laboratory work. The very last option I took that was radically different of what I have already done in trying to get a job was going to the American Chemical Society meeting in Washington D.C. I talked to several people on what else I could do and if they could critique my resume. It has already been reviewed about eight times from four different people prior to my trip to D.C. but I wanted another perspective I guess. The summary comes down to that most likely I would have to relocate as the only viable option, but that my resume seemed that it basically had the “meat and potatoes.” I guess the small good news is that in all of this I have a little bit of job experience as well as interviewing skills and that I nailed both interviews that landed me the two jobs that I previously held, however both jobs were located in South Florida.
I guess I am very frustrated because I only know what a chemical engineer does not by my experience but what magazines and books say they do. I have never pigeon-holed myself into just doing one aspect such as research as an example. I am open to manufacturing, energy, food; paper, healthcare, biotechnology, government, oil industry etc. just to name a few. And I have sent resume to these fields among others as well. I am not looking for the golden 6 figure salary job, but I am embarrassed about being on the other side of the spectrum. I am a 29 year old single guy still living with his mom where she has two jobs because I cannot pay my own bills. I’ve even tried jobs such as Home Depot or Best Buy and not even get called for that. Hell even my best friend foots the bill when we go out to eat, and he works as a security guard. One of my friends who works at one of these similar places as an assistant manager say that for the most part they will not hire someone like me because they know that I will be looking for a job elsewhere. It is more viable to hire someone still in high school or in college that can put in several years than someone like me. Do I have leprosy? I have even tried looking into the pharmacy program, too expensive and the nursing program which seems more viable as options. In any case these are my following questions.
1. Is the only option basically moving, or do you think I have other options as far as being able to ever practice as an engineer?
My two cents on why I think I have never been called outside of Florida is because I come from an unaccredited school or possibly because since most chemical engineering jobs are located in the Northeast, Midwest and Texas for example why would a company look for someone all the way over here when they have candidates from much better schools a few miles away or at worst case scenario a state or two away. Or maybe it is something else or a combination of?
2. Is it too late to enter the field as an engineer with almost three years being out of
touch with my field?
My two cents on this is that since every year you have new graduates, basically you are competing with them, they are fresh out of school.
3. Do you know someone with a similar experience and what they did to get out of
it? Meaning how did they eventually get the engineering job?
I guess what I mean above is that do you have a similar personal experience or a friend or relative who has had trouble getting a job in the engineering field because of: The person came from an unaccredited school, location, financial troubles, not having an extended network of family or professionals because you came from poverty or consider yourself a first generation in the states. I guess to coin the phrase it is not always what you know but who you know. Or if you know someone in this situation did they do a complete overhaul in their lives and did a 180 turn by choosing a completely unrelated field?
Well I want to thank you for the time in taking to read what probably turned into a novel. Sometimes I wonder if I should have become a lawyer, an accountant, a pill dispenser also known as a pharmacist, a doctor who is just in it for the money, or a strip club owner down here in Miami. I would probably be living the “Miami lifestyle” and would be taking care of my mom instead of the other way around, although I would have to sell my soul and do something I would have not enjoyed except for maybe one of the choices.
Regards,
Juan
